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[BOOK SPOILERS] What did your friends/family think of the premiere and their predictions?


teemo

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I only have one male friend that has read the books (up to the end of ASOS), and he says reading the books has totally ruined the show for him (he caught up right before the season started in the books) and that it's driving him crazy. He despises pretty much all of the changes. I think he's more angry at the show than I've ever been. He also said it was "boring with too much useless talking." He didn't see the point of the Cersei/Tyrion scene at all and really hated Jon Snow's story to Mance.

Non book reader friends:

My other friend who loves this show had this to say - "Hate to say it, but i didnt think Thrones was good at all last night. Way too much talk, and very little script advancement or excitement. I dont need to touch base with everyone. Just show me something to look forward to. It was a bad episode. The scope of the stories is really too big to cover all the characters but they try to anyways. I dont know the book, but the 5minute scene with Sansa and little finger at the dock seemed completely unnecessary."

My friend and her husband who absolutely love this show and re-watched season 2 like five times actually used the word "hate." They hated it! Her words, "It was too slow. It was too boring, and I found myself not caring about many of the newer characters." Her husband said, "It left no impact on me like the usual episode and was really underwhelming for a premiere. And the dialogue felt weak to me."

I'm really surprised how much my friends are disliking it. I thought it was way better than the premiere from season 2, and I'm usually the one to get all upset about episodes. I LIKED this episode! :\

Predictions - what predictions do your friends/family have? My friend is convinced that Jon will totally break his vows and become a full-fledged wildling. I haven't gotten a lot of other predictions out of them yet, but curious to see what other users' friends on here are predicting :)

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Yeah i've heard a few people mention that this episode was a bit too talky, but i mean come on, its the season opener, and when you look back at the season 2 opener, I mean there was pretty much the same amount of talking. Some predictions I've heard have been things like Bronn getting the old sword to the head, and Bran regaining his legs, now I can't wait to see their faces when the final few episodes air :laugh:

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Huh. One of my friends said it was a bit boring, but she didn't seem to hate it. I guess we have to explain to people that such slow openers are generally needed to establish the groundwork for the season.

Another friend once told me that he predicted that not only would Sam become a total badass, but the Hound would join the NW and be one of the top dogs there. :lol:

I guess what people need to realise is that since the show is an adaptation of a series of novels, the beginning will always be slow-paced, as introducing and establishing new characters is essential to the story. When you take that into consideration, you won't be disappointed. I, for one, enjoyed the episode. It seemed to fit right in with the last 2 seasons.

BTW, I was reading the comments on the AV Club's review, and people still seem to miss Renly. Hell, some of them even said he was one of the most likeable characters on the show......

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No one complaint here, they loved it. With some little complaints. One said that the pacing was much better than last season that he felt was more for the mainstream viewer and that this season is back on track like the first season. I think it helped with them that I said that Arya, Bran and Jaime weren't in the episode.

People forget that GOT is a show that is building up to something big. Like reading above the scene with Littlefinger and Sansa is one of the most important scenes for the future.

Personally I think that there are many fewers that are more for the average TV show than shows like GOT.

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ive heard people mostly not liking it, and i can see why.

in the first episode of a season, you have to give people something interesting. this didnt. you have to start with a bang, not that botched sam scene that made as much sense as a walking dead scene. where was he running from? too? how did all those guys show up suddenly, walking at a languid pace, and then they had time to stop and lecture? are they supposed to be escaping? that sat a bad tone for most people.

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To be fair, Renly IS one of the most likeable characters. In both the show and the book. The overall importance I feel from him is he represents who WOULD have been the peoples king, the quickest to achieve peace(having so much support, being willing to negotiate, being charismatic and attractive which both go a LONG way in securing loyalty, etc.) and whose death was ultimately tragic... tragic for the whole of Westeros.

As to the show itself. It's hilarious, I highly disliked last night's episode, but it was better than 80% of season two IMO.

But all my show friends who LOVED season two, for whatever reason(frankly, even without the book, it's pretty fucking terrible), all hated the opening episode of season three.

My Facebook was loaded with WALKING DEAD DISAPPOINTED, GAME OF THRONES DISAPPOINTED: WASTE OF A NIGHT esque statuses.

I think the episode may be more popular as more episodes are released though. Most Game of Thrones fans, book readers or not, tend to marathon the show. I have one friend specifically who watches ALL of season one in one go about once every month or two as if it was a ten hour movie. And everyone else seems to enjoy watching entire shows in the course of a week when they can, thanks to Netflix. So... maybe the critical opinions will improve when people can see the whole product? Oh well.

And a final note: I don't know a single person who WASN'T disgusted by the major copout with the Fist of the First Men. Nor do I know anyone who gave a flying fuck about all the time wasted on Cersei/Marg/Joff at the end. (or at least, anyone who wanted all that in the FIRST episode)

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Hm, this is bad news, if people didn't like it. To me it looked better than Season 2 without a doubt. The pacing was there... except Bron at the brothel, there were no useless scenes. I don't understand people who complain that this is a soap opera, or that there are too many discussions. That's exactly how Season 1 was, why did they like it then??? Anyway, episode 2 will be probably the same as 1, but then... the ball starts rolling. We have Jaime in episode 3, Astapor in episode 4, 2 weddings for episode 8 and 9, Mhysa in 10... I am sure they found some good endings for episodes 5,6 and 7. For example, the Hound and Beric, the climb over the wall, Jon and Summer, the Boy's name after Theon's escape. So many good things this season. I as a reader of ASOIAF I am still cautious, but it's impossible for non-readers to be disappointed.

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I only have one show-watching friend who did not read the books. He...

- Liked the Bronn scene

- Likes Shae

- Had no fucking idea what happened at Harrenhal, and I was kind of at a loss to explain it until it came on here

- Loved the Tyrion/Cersei and Tyrion/Tywin scenes

Overall he liked it. He didn't say what he thought about the opening scene and other things people complain about on here (and things I also complained about) and I didn't ask because I don't want to point out what I disliked and ruin it for him.

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My boyfriend usually prefers series full of action, but after this episode he said "It's interesting how they made this episode so exciting, without any kind of action - only talk", so he still loves it even though it's a bit slow sometimes. He has not read the books and I usually don't tell him too much about the differences.

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Everyone I watched it with loved it and like everyone else has said I thought it was a much better start then season 2. I was surprised that my Dad a non book reader was almost as excited to see Barristan Selmy as I was even with the disappointment of no Strong Belwas.

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Haven't talked to anyone about it yet, but i think this season might be better than season 2 (which isn't much of an accomplishment unfortunately). Still, there was that zombie idiocy at the beginning, and a lot of mediocre acting. The only scenes i can say i liked was Tywin's speech to Tyrion (pretty much the way i imagined it, and Charles Dance fckin rocks Tywin) and the Unsullied :D Men sure dont need nipples.

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I don't understand people who complain that this is a soap opera, or that there are too many discussions. That's exactly how Season 1 was, why did they like it then???

Because season one was actually, you know, good. And stayed fairly close to the original text. (not close enough, but close enough giving ten hours and the limited budget + limited cast)

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What's wrong with your friends? Have they started to watch the show in the third season without having watched the first two? Because the show has always been like this. This is not Spartacus.

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I watched the show with my father (non-reader) and he enjoyed the episode. He seemed to like the cinematography and thought the pacing was much better than the previous season. Also, I know some people have worried that Roose hasn't been creepy/memorable enough to catch viewers' eyes yet, but my father pegged Roose as "not to be trusted" immediately after the Harrenhal scene.

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Me: The general consensus among the reviews I've read is that the season has a slow start, but overall it's the best season yet.

Non-reading guys in my viewing party: Really? I thought the episode was very cool.

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In my family the ones that watched the show on the premiere didn't read the books, but they enjoyed the first episode a lot. They got a bit lost regarding what happened in Harrenhal, and I said that since it's an adaptation and it didn't happened like that in the books (I don't like to compare the show and the books too much for them, because they say they will read it, well who knows when...) I could only guess that Tywin army or the Mountain killed all the prisioners when they left. As non book readers, they didn't care much for Robb and Cat interactions, since they never had the chance to know the book character, so no complaints about her or Mance or anyother character. They were really surprised, in a very good way, with the Astapor scene, I mean they really wan't to know if Dany will get the army and how it will come. One thing that called my attention is that they asked me about Barristan, I mean they didn't really recalled him at first.

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